Nadine Dorries says sinister forces stopped her peerage

Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has said "sinister forces" denied her a seat in the House of Lords.

The MP was one of Boris Johnson's close allies who didn't appear on the former PM's resignation honours list.

In the Daily Mail, Ms Dorries accuses Rishi Sunak's political team of removing her name from the list.

The row comes as MPs await the publication of a report into whether Mr Johnson misled MPs deliberately over pandemic events in Downing Street.

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Mr Johnson, who resigned as an MP, has lashed out at what he sees as the "kangaroo court" of the Privileges Committee, who have been examining evidence from Mr Johnson and his staff over Partygate.

The committee had been preparing to recommend suspending Mr Johnson as an MP for 10 days or more, the BBC was told, a threshold which would have resulted in a recall petition among his constituents and a potential by-election.

The committee's report - due on Wednesday - is sufficiently devastating to the former prime minister's reputation that he walked away from Parliament before, he anticipated, MPs and voters might force him to, the BBC's political editor Chris Mason says.

It adds to the fallout from Mr Johnson's resignation honours, fuelling a continuing rift within the Conservative Party - including a war of words between Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson.

Downing Street is now facing a hat-trick of by-elections after Ms Dorries, Mr Johnson, and Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, announced their resignations quick succession.

Ms Dorries has not yet formally stood down as an MP.

The by-elections have the potential to create major problems for Mr Sunak at a time when the Conservatives are trailing Labour by an average of 15 points in national polls.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the by-elections "political tantrums".

Speaking at London Tech Week, Sir Keir said political uncertainty is leading to "many investors" holding back from putting money into the UK.

Vetting advice

On Monday, Mr Sunak accused his former boss of asking him to "overrule" the vetting advice on his House of Lords nominations. In response, Mr Johnson accused Mr Sunak of "talking rubbish".

The resignation honours list is a tradition that gives outgoing prime ministers the opportunity to nominate people for honours.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) said it rejected eight of Mr Johnson's nominations. However, there has been no confirmation of who the nominees were and why they were not included on the list.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said HOLAC did not support the peerage nominations of the MPs put forward by Mr Johnson.

The spokesperson added: "It is unprecedented for a sitting prime minister to invite HOLAC to reconsider the vetting of individual nominees on a former prime minister's resignation list."

But Ms Dorries said Mr Sunak's team "had made sure that certain names would not be on" the list sent to HOLAC. Ms Dorries added she understands this "to be true despite denials from those concerned".

Ms Dorries used her article to argue for her place in the House of Lords, writing: "I was born into poverty and clawed my way out of it to build a new life for me and my family, and then carved out a role in public service.

"A seat in the Lords was recognition of that - and a means of continuing to give back to society."

The prime minister's press secretary has denied Ms Dorries' version of events, saying: "No-one in No10 amended or edited any list."

"As is convention, on receiving the former prime minister's resignation honours list the prime minister forwarded the peerage list unaltered to HOLAC," the press secretary said.

'Weasel words'

Ms Dorries said Mr Johnson had told her in autumn last year she had been put on his resignation honours list.

The former culture secretary said she had been vetted for the peerage, but because six months had passed, her checks had expired.

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She also said Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson had a meeting last week to discuss his honours list.

Ms Dorries accused the prime minister of using "weasel words" at that meeting to give Mr Johnson the impression Mr Sunak would ask HOLAC to restart the vetting process.

According to Ms Dorries, these "duplicitous machinations" were to avoid a by-election caused when an MP steps down to take a seat in the House of Lords.